GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT TERMS-1-ALPHABET – A

ABHANGA: A devotional poetic composition.*
ABHASA: Reflection.
ABHAYAM: Fearless.
ABHIMANA: Egoism, identification with the body.
ABHYASA: Spiritual practice.
ACHARYA: Teacher; Preceptor.
ACHYUTA: Immutable-Lord Vishnu.
ADESA: Command.
ADHIKARI: A qualified person, Fit aspirant (Uttama: Good, Madhyama: medium, Adhama: inferior)
ADHISHTHANA: Substratum, support.
ADHYASA: Mutual identification or superimposition.
ADHYASA: Superimposition or false attribution of properties of one thing on another thing.
ADHYATMIC: Spiritual.
ADHYAYANA: Study.
ADRISYA: Unperceived by the eye.
ADVAITA: Non-dual; Non-duality.
AGANDHA: Without smell.
AGASTYA MUNI: Name of a sage.
AGNI: Fire.
AGRAHYA: Unknowable.
AHAM BRAHMA ASMI: ‘I am Brahman.’
AHAM: ‘I’ or ego.
AHAMGRAHA: A kind of meditation in which the aspirant identifies himself with Brahman.
AHAMKARA: Ego; Pure Ego.
AHIMSA: Non-injury in thought, Non-violence, word and deed. Click here for a more detailed explanation.
AISVARYA: Divine attributes like wisdom, renunciation, power, etc.
AISVARYA: Material or spiritual wealth
AITAREYA: Name of an Upanishad.
AJAPA: Repetition of “Soham” Mantra.
AJARAM: Without old age.
AJNA: Chakra: Cavernous plexus
AJNA: Spiritual centre between the two eyebrows.
AJNANA: Ignorance.
AKASA: Ether, space, sky
AKHANDA: Indivisible.
AKHOW: Name of a sage.
ALABDHABHUMIKATVA: The feeling that it is impossible to see reality.
ALAMBANA: Support.
ALASYA: Lethargy, inertia, Laziness.
ALPA: Little; Small.
AMALAKA: The Indian gooseberry.
AMANA: Mindless; Thoughtless.
AMARA-PURUSHA: Immortal being.
AMATRA: Having no measure; Transcendental.
AMRITAM: Immortal.
AMRITATVA: Immortality.
ANADI: Beginningless.
ANAHATA CHAKRA: One of the Yogic centres (heart).
ANAHATA CHAKRA-Cardiac plexus, lotus of the heart.
ANAHATA SOUND-Mystical inner sound.
ANAHATA: Mystic sound heard by Yogis.
ANANDA: Bliss, happiness, joy.
ANANDA-GHANA: Cloud of bliss.
ANANDAGHANA: Mass of Bliss.
ANANDAMAYA: Full of great happiness.
ANANDA-SVARUPA: Of the form of bliss.
ANANTA: Endless.
ANANTAM: Infinity.
ANANTANAG: Name of a place.
ANARTHA: Evil; Wrong; Calamity.
ANATMA: Not-Self.
ANGA: Subordinate step, A limb, A part.
ANGA-Limb, step.
ANIMA: Subtlety, reducing body in size
ANTAHKARANA: Internal instrument such as mind, intellect, ego and the subconscious mind.
ANTAHKARANA-The fourfold internal organs, Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara.
ANTARANGA: Internal.
ANTARATMAN: Inner Self.
ANTARJYOTIS: Inner light.
ANTARMUKHA: Introspective; Gaze turned inwards.
ANTARYAMIN: Inner ruler, Inner witness.
ANUBHAVA: Experience.
APANA VAYU: Down-going breath; The nerve-current which governs abdominal region and does excretory function.
APANA: Vital energy functioning in excretion
APAROKSHA: Immediate.
APAS: Water
APRANA: Without Prana (life-breath).
APTA: Realized.
APTA-KAMA: One whose desires have been fulfilled; a realised sage.
ARAMBHA: A state reached in Pranayama
ARANI: A sacrificial wood.
ARCHANA: Offering of flowers etc., at the time of worship.
ARHATA: A perfected Soul.
ARJAVA: Straightforwardness.
ARJUNA: Name of a great devotee of Krishna, who was taught the Gita; one of the Pandava brothers.
ARTHA: Wealth.
ARUDHA: Ascended; in a state of culmination; established.
ARUNDHATI: Name of a star.
ARUPA: Formless.
ASABDA: Soundless.
ASAMPRAJNATA: Highest superconscious state where the mind is completely annihilated and Reality experienced.
ASANA JAYA: Mastery over Asana.
ASANA: A bodily pose or posture.
ASANGOHAM: ‘I am unassociated’; a formula for meditation.
ASHRAM: A hermitage; monastery.
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs (of Patanjali’s Raja Yoga)
ASHTANGA: Eight limbs. Click here for a discourse on Raja Yoga / Ashtanga Yoga.
ASMITA: Pure ego; self-consciousness.
ASPARSA: Touchless.
ASTIKA: Believer of God or the Vedas
ASURA: Demon, evil tendency in man
ASURA: Demon.
ASURI: Devilish
ASURIC: Demoniacal.
ASURIC-Devilish.
ASUYA: Jealousy.
ASVATTHA: The sacred peepal tree.
ASVINI MUDRA: A kind of Hatha Yoga practice.
ATHARVANA: Name of a Veda; name of a sage.
ATINDRIYA: Beyond the reach of the senses.
ATMADROHA: Enmity with the Self.
ATMAHANA: Killer of the Self.
ATMA-JNANA: Knowledge of the Self.
ATMAN: Divine soul in man, the Supreme Self
ATMAN: The Self.
ATMA-SVARUP: The essential nature of the Self.
ATMIC-TRIVENI: The Soul compared to Triveni (Triveni is a sacred confluence of three rivers).
ATRI: Name of a sage.
AUM: Sacred monosyllable; symbol of Brahman.
AUROBINDO: Name of the famous sage of Pondicherry.
AVADHANA: Attention.
AVADHANI: Attentive, concentrated
AVADHUTA GITA: A book containing the teachings of sage Dattatreya.
AVADHUTA: A naked sage.
AVARANA: Veil of ignorance.
AVASTHA: State
AVATARA: Incarnation of God.
AVIDYA: Ignorance.
AVIRATI: Non-dispassion; sensual indulgence.
AVYAKTA: Unmanifest-three Gunas (qualities born of nature) in a state of equilibrium.
AVYAYA: Inexhaustible.
AYURVEDA: The ancient Indian science of medicine.